The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the most dramatic way possible after Evan Bouchard fired the game-winning goal from the point with just 38 seconds left in Game 4.
But was the puck knocked down before a high-stick before the goal?
On the panel after the 3-2 Oilers win, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wondered if Leon Draisaitl had knocked the puck down with a stick above his shoulders.
The NHL allows for reviews of “missed game stoppage events in the offensive zone” if they lead to a goal. The review falls under Coaches Challenges except in the final minute of the third period and overtime, when it switches to a league-initiated review.
An additional wrinkle to the rule: Since Draisaitl was not directing the puck into the net, the threshold for high-sticking is the shoulder, not the crossbar.
In this case, the league chose not to review the high stick and the goal counted, paving the way for the Oilers to tie the series 2-2.
“Someone watched that angle live and said ‘what do you think?'” Friedman said of a tip he received from an anonymous source. “It’s got to be conclusive… I’m not seeing anything there that says to me that that would be a goal that would be disallowed.”
Game 5 in this series is Thursday in Vancouver.